For as many fans as Christopher Nolan has, he has plenty of detractors as well. Who knew some were so closely tied into him, though. In a new interview Christopher Priest, who wrote the novel The Prestige which Nolan adapted, had lots to say about the director and his movies. First of all, he does like The Prestige as a movie but admits the two only met when Nolan finished the film. Since though though, Priest thinks Nolan has gone downhill, going so far as to call his Dark Knight Trilogy “boring and pretentious.” And that’s just part of it. Read more of Christopher Priest’s thoughts on Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight films below.

And here are a few of the quotes. They’re out of context just because there’s a lot of context, but you can get that above:

To the world he’s this great, innovative filmmaker; to me, he was a kid who wanted to get into Hollywood.

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I don’t like his other work, I think it’s shallow and badly written. I’ve got kids who like superheroes, and they think the Batman films are boring and pretentious. They like things like The Avengers and Iron Man because they’re fun. It’s a wrong move to take a superhero and give it psychological realism. There is no psychological realism. He’s a bodybuilder who jumps off buildings.

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I’m sorry, I feel really strongly about this, and I think the proof is in the audiences. I’ve been to the movie house and seen things like Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and the audience – they’re mostly kids, they’re restless, they don’t watch the film, they talk to each other, they start texting and doing Twitter, they change seats, go to the toilet, kiss their girlfriends. And every now and then the guy jumps off the building on a rope, and they watch it and go, ‘Woo!’ Then they lose interest. To me, that’s a real, major lack of judgement in Nolan, to go for superhero films.

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Now, if you watch the video, you can tell Priest isn’t a mean person. He’s just got a very strong opinion on Christopher Nolan’s films. And who doesn’t? He makes fair points too. I don’t agree with him – to me Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are every bit as exhilarating as Iron Man or The Avengers, just in different ways – but you see where he’s coming from. Or maybe you don’t. Feel free to tell us why below.